Election: Wooster school board candidates dive into issues

By Linda Hall Staff Writer

Wednesday

Oct 28, 2015 at 4:00 AM

WOOSTER DISTRICT -- The candidates for the Wooster City Schools' board tackled more than a dozen issues facing the district, including ones that have been handled, ones not necessarily under its control and at least one outside of its purview.

Incumbents Bob Reynolds and Michael Knapic shared their views, as did challengers Jackie Kiefer and Sue Herman, at a recent Wayne County League of Women Voters' panel.

One of the issues brought up by the audience was the school schedule.

Kiefer noted as a former teacher she knows firsthand how hard it can be to keep students in first period awake.

Also a retired teacher, Herman agreed. Because the teenage brain "wakes up later," she said, the schedule needs to be what is best for students.

Reynolds, an attorney, said the schedule is not driven by sports, as the submitted question suggested, but rather by busing, which is complicated by transporting other grade levels as well as the high school.

"I agree with the premise," he said, but "transportation of other levels ties you down on that."

Reynolds said the schedule was changed this year and reflects a slightly later start time for the high school.

Knapic, an orthopedic surgeon, said he would "certainly defer to science (research)," but affirmed Reynolds' assertion that balancing the busing schedule is "a real challenge."

He also put the responsibility on students to shut their phones off at night and get the rest they need.

As to whether teachers should be evaluated on the basis of students' test scores, Kiefer pointed out a test won't tell how much class time the student taking it missed.

Teachers should be evaluated by administrators observing them, Kiefer said, rather than totally by test scores.

Herman agreed, while further questioning the validity of the test measurements used.

"The problem we wrestle with is the 'flavor of the month'" on the state level, according to Reynolds, and the "feeling you can measure everything. We're all for accountability ... but there are limits to what we can measure."

"There are a lot ways to assess performance," Knapic said. "That's not one of them."

Candidates also were asked about what research they do on decisions to be made in order to avoid merely being a "rubber stamp" to the administration.

The board's work sessions are "the meetings you want to attend," Herman said, because it is where the work of the board is done.

It's where board members talk things out and generally reach a consensus, according to Reynolds.

Candidates were asked if any of them had been involved as Tri-County Educational Service board members in the failing New Frontier community school in Akron.

"I'm not up on that," Kiefer said, however, "we shouldn't have the need for voucher and charter schools."

"I had no part of that decision and would have been opposed to it," Herman said. "I don't believe public school dollars should go to that. I'm an advocate of public schools. You will not find a greater advocate of public schools."

Wooster City Schools "had nothing to do with that," Reynolds said, calling it "a debacle" and an "embarrassment to the state."

"Our board had nothing to do with that," Knapic affirmed.

Each of the candidates showed support for the ways in which the district has handled its budget and for its diligence in serving the needs of all students.

"Clearly the biennium budget presents challenges," Knapic said, but thinks the district has positioned itself well from a financial standpoint. "We will likely continue to see decreases (in funding)."

"School funding is a big problem," Kiefer said. "I do think Wooster City Schools has done a great job in being very responsible (fiscally)."

Herman said school funding is an "area that makes my head spin" and agreed Wooster "has been responsible. Our problems really are at the state level and what they're doing there."

"Above all, one thing that cannot be sacrificed" are the needs of the students, Herman said.

Reynolds called serving children from a wide demographic base in terms of barriers such as poverty or English as a second language -- 15-20 different languages are spoken in the district -- "our duty, both morally and legally."

One of the challenges is "a lot of kids are under-represented in the district; on the other end (of the spectrum) some kids are over-represented."

"It's a role we take very seriously," Knapic said, speaking even to the "little things we are doing (to support them)," from providing a warm meal to a smile.

"That's the beauty of public school," Kiefer said, referring to serving students in "every walk of life. Wooster City Schools is doing a very nice job of that."

"I was a free and reduced (lunch qualifying) kid, and oftentimes felt like the odd man out," Herman said, adding, "That's our moral obligation to take care of each other."

Reporter Linda Hall can be reached at 330-264-1125, Ext. 2230, or lhall@the-daily-record.com. She is @lindahallTDR on Twitter.

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